Saturday, March 21, 2009, 8:00 pm
Hunter Center
$16 /$10 student with ID/10% Membership Discount
Member tickets are not available via the internet.

“Blurs the edges of confession and performance, concert and play, memory and creation. . . . Hopkins pulls off the impossible . . . —Time Out New York

Singer/performer/director Cynthia Hopkins (Accidental Nostalgia seen at MASS MoCA in 2006, and Must Don’t Whip ’Um) has built a large local following for her unique style of contemporary music-theater and for her band Gloria Deluxe who opened for Patti Smith in 2001. The final chapter of her Accidental Trilogy takes her investigation of memory, loss, and personal history to futuristic, intergalactic heights in this music-soaked, beguiling, and humorous telling of an ancient epic imagined as a live sci-fi film. Supported by her familiar and brilliant collaborators—video artists/theatrical designers Jeff Sugg and Jim Findlay (Wooster Group)—Hopkins takes us on an immersive exploration of time, space, and the pros and cons of evolution. The work features Hopkins’ signature hybrid of song, text, and dollhouse videoscapes. The performance of this one-woman show comes on the heels of a week-long residency.

Galleries open until 7 PM

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Cynthia Hopkins' Multimedia Saga The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) to show as Work-in-Progress at MASS MoCA

(North Adams, Massachusetts) Writer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and theater artist Cynthia Hopkins is ready to step into the future for the third and final installment of her Accidental Trilogy, an immersive multimedia exploration of time, space, and the pros and cons of evolution. The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) is the heroic, inter-galactic saga of Ruom Yes Noremac, a resident of the far-distant future who is on a secret mission to save the world. After a two-week residency at MASS MoCA, Hopkins and her collaborators will present a work-in-progress showing of the piece on Saturday, March 21, at 8 PM in MASS MoCA's Hunter Center, in advance of its world premiere at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in April. The Philadelphia Inquirer praised Hopkins' earlier work Accidental Nostalgia, noting "It's timeless, it's true, and it's hauntingly lovely."

Hopkins' Accidental Trilogy, which includes Bessie Award-winning Accidental Nostalgia (shown at MASS MoCA as a work-in-progress in 2004) and 2007's Must Don't Whip 'Um, is centered around an investigation into neurology and psychology of amnesia. In Hopkins' words, "It's all kind of this large tapestry spun from all different threads, but the seeds came from an interest in amnesia. The pieces have emerged one from the other like Russian dolls. As soon as one is opened up there is more in there. The making of the first lead to the making of the second, but ultimately it's a saga about a personal evolution and self-transformation."

A collaboration with her team of designers, Jim Findlay and Jeff Sugg, as well as director D.J. Mendel, The Succes of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) is told through Hopkins' signature hybrid of spellbinding text, heart-wrenching songs, innovative orchestral environments, and immersive handcrafted videoscapes. During the course of her lonely journey through space to save the world, the title character, Ruom Yes Noremac, realizes that only by failing to save the earth can she succeed in saving the universe. Hopkins notes, "My hope is that it provokes a fundamental question of what the possibilities of life are. In other words, I want to blow people's minds… turn them inside out or upside down, or some other shape other than what they already are."

The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) was produced by Accinosco in association with Joel Bassin, with commissioning support from St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Carolina Performing Arts at UNC, the Walker Art Center, and the Wexner Center for the Arts at The Ohio State University. The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) was made possible through the generous support of the APAP Ensemble Theatre Collaborations Grant Program (a component of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation Theatre Initiative), The Jerome Foundation, and the MAP Fund.

Cynthia Hopkins is the founding member of the band Gloria Deluxe, which has produced six full-length albums and performed at numerous venues in New York City and elsewhere. Opening for legendary artists such as David Byrne and Patti Smith (in a concert at MASS MoCA in 2001), the group has developed an enthusiastic following for its unique blend of folk, cabaret, rock, blues, and country music. Gloria Deluxe has been an integral component of all three Accidental Trilogy works. Hopkins has also created solo music/theater works including Tsimtsum, a piece commissioned by Dance Theater Workshop for the May 2006 Sourcing Stravinsky Festival, and Song Before Love Songs a post-apocalyptic requiem for the human race commissioned by Bang on a Can which premiered in February 2005. In addition, she has worked as a composer, musician, and performer for many projects, including Big Dance Theater's Antigone, Shunkin, and Another Telepathic Thing (2001 Bessie award for composition; 2000 OBIE award for performance); and Ridge Theater's production of Mac Wellman's at Jennie Richee, for which she won a 2001 OBIE Award as part of the collaborative team. Hopkins also performs as a guest artist with groups including Bonnie Prince Billy and Dan Zanes and Friends.

Tickets for The Success of Failure (or, The Failure of Success) are $16/ $10 for students. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams, open from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M., closed Tuesdays. Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line at www.massmoca.org.